1 The hares had a problem. Wild dogs chased them. Foxes and wolves chased them. Wildcats chased them. Cattle did not chase them, but their hooves hurt if a hare got in the way. It seemed as if every animal on Earth was bigger and meaner than a hare.2 One day a troop of wild horses galloped into hare homeland. The ground shook. The beating hooves kicked up dust. The hares panicked.3 "This is bad!" declared the first hare. "My ears can't take the noise!"4 "This is awful," declared the second hare. "My nose can't take the dust! A-choo!"5 "This is terrible," declared the third hare. "My eyes can't count so many horses!"6 "This is crazy," declared the fourth hare. "My heart can't take the stress of being afraid!"7 "What should we do?" cried the young hares that had huddled together.8 "Let's jump in the lake and drown ourselves," the fourth hare said. "Then we'll never have anything to fear."9 "That seems rather extreme," the first hare said slowly.